• Question: what is the most dangerous explosion you've done?

    Asked by anon-259791 on 28 Sep 2020.
    • Photo: Chris Bloomer

      Chris Bloomer answered on 28 Sep 2020:

      I have only made a very tiny “explosion” by accident. I was testing a new X-ray detector, and accidentally applied a very high electrical voltage to it, about 200 volts! This was enough volts that the detector went “zap”, and quickly burnt out. When I realised what I had done and went to check on it, I saw that my voltage had heated up the detector, and fried some of the tiny wires on it. It was completely dead and I couldn’t make it work again.

      So, that was luckily only a very small explosion!

    • Photo: James Smallcombe

      James Smallcombe answered on 29 Sep 2020:

      I was testing a high powered magnet made of two wire coils held a short distance apart. The frame holding the coils apart cracked and the 2 pieces slammed together with magnetic force. Pieces exploded and flew all over the testing chamber. Luckily it was well contained as it was a test, if it happened in the real experiment room it would have destroyed some very expensive laser mirrors and lenses.

    • Photo: Ian Linney

      Ian Linney answered on 30 Sep 2020:

      I once had a reaction that was more reactive than I anticipated – the consequence was covering a 2 metre fumehood in bright yellow goo. Trying to explain that one to the boss and clean it up was a challenge!

    • Photo: Will Davison

      Will Davison answered on 30 Sep 2020:

      I was once trying to bubble some samples with nitrogen gas from a compressed gas cylinder. I didn’t realise that someone had closed the valve at the other end so I kept turning the pressure up higher and higher until the silicone tubing it was flowing into burst! It wasn’t overly dangerous but made a really loud bang that scared the daylights out of me!

    • Photo: Helen Playford

      Helen Playford answered on 9 Oct 2020:

      I have a story about an explosion that I managed to avoid, but it could have been pretty spectacular.

      We had a sample inside of a hydraulic press that we were planning to look at using a neutron beam. There was a problem with some equipment which meant we had to lift the press out of the way, while the sample was under 10 gigapascals of pressure (this is about 100 times the pressure of the deepest part of the ocean). If something went wrong as we were moving it and the pressure was released suddenly there would have been a very, VERY loud bang, enough to potentially damage the steel parts of the press and definitely enough to damage us!

      We were all wearing face shields and ear defenders and moved very sloooooowly and carefully. Luckily it was all fine but I did have sweaty palms during it!

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